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The jackpot in this year's Channel Islands Christmas Lottery could be the lowest it's been in more than 15 years and we're keen to find out if your spending on lottery tickets has changed, and if so – why?
By yesterday – with just two weeks to go before the big draw – the guaranteed first prize has risen to £350,000.
That total will continue to grow until the draw is made on 21 December in Jersey and the organiser say it is likely the 2023 jackpot will eventually reach more than last year's £545,118 prize.
However, that was the lowest the jackpot had been in more than a decade – and was less than half the first prize was in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Pictured: CI Christmas Lottery tickets used to be £1, then they doubled to £2 in 2013, increased again to £3 in 2018 and then dropped back down to £2 last year.
Jon Taylor, the Senior Lottery Officer for the States Trading Group, which operates the Lottery in Guernsey yesterday said: “Sales are building nicely as we get closer to Christmas and if currents trends continue, we hope that by the day of the draw we can get close to last year’s top prize of £545,118.”
The prize pot also includes another 66 drawn prizes, from £500 to £50,000, and there are also 200,000 instant prizes in the scratch off part of the ticket.
All the proceeds from the Christmas Lottery are distributed to worthy causes throughout the Channel Islands with many charities relying on the funds raised through the festive draw each year.
With the prize total – and the money going to those charities – decreasing each year, a review of the pan-island Christmas Lottery was held earlier this year with a raft of changes proposed.
None have yet been introduced, but they included dropping the scratch card element of the £2 ticket or the introduction of a second £5 ticket.
A survey held as part of the review gauged feedback to several proposed changes, including only providing one draw number per ticket, instead of two.
The survey was one part of a larger review into the Lottery that includes charity sector feedback and discussions with resellers.
Pictured: Jersey charity Every Child Our Future recently benefitted from £5,000 of Channel Islands Lottery funding.
With the rolling first prize now standing at £350,000, it means that just £50,000 has been added to the guaranteed jackpot since the 2023 lottery was launched in October, more than nine weeks ago.
By comparison, on 6 December last year the 2022 jackpot had reached £400,000 and by 3 December 2021 the top prize had reached £450,000.
Looking back even further, on 10 December 2018 the jackpot for that year's Channel Islands Christmas Lottery was already up to at least £825,000.
That year's lottery was billed as a 'Millionaire Maker' but it did not live up to its title, although the following year was advertised as a guaranteed 'Millionaire Maker' with the prize £1,00,000 exactly.
The moniker was dropped the following year and the prizes has declined in value each year since.
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